Despite Warnock’s insistence to the contrary, Palace did not really play that well. They will have to show a little more imagination than just relying on long balls and Wilfried Zaha’s hopeful crosses.

But, curmudgeonly as many people find him, his considered criticism of referee Phil Dowd was unfortunately spot on, particularly regarding the penalty appeal – the early challenge on Fraizer Campbell by Santiago Vergini and the later tangle between Van Aanholt and Zaha.

“Decisions change games,” he said. “We’ve had major decisions go against us. It does feel cruel, it’s a cruel night.

“I said to the fourth official, ‘How does it feel after the game when you see you’ve made a mistake?’ He said it hurts – well there will be one or two people hurting tonight, but no more than me and my team.

“Tonight, you can’t get a clearer penalty. You can see it clearly and the referee is in a great position to give that. They should be simple for top-class referees.

“I don’t understand, it’s no good speaking to [referees’ chief] Mike Riley. After the West Brom game, we were told to appeal more. Well, we’re too honest at the moment, too nice.”

Jordi Gomez netted Sunderland's second late on before Fletcher wrapped up the points [GETTY]

The frustrations led to Mile Jedinak picking up two silly bookings and his dismissal in the 87th minute rules him out of the trip to Manchester United – something Warnock revealed the skipper had already apologised for.

But questions also have to be asked of the rest of his players, especially with regard to the marking for the first goal. It all seemed to happen in slow motion – Van Aanholt beating the offside trap and floating a cross for Fletcher to nod the least-powerful, most-accurate headed goal of his career inside the far post.

Having taken Vito Mannone’s place in the Sunderland goal, it was 55 minutes before Costel Pantilimon had a save to make. He impressively kept out Marouane Chamakh’s point-blank header but watched as stupefied as the rest of us when Brown hammered Campbell’s subsequent backheel into the back of his own net.

Palace’s defence was just as static when Gomez restored Sunderland’s lead against the run of play with a low 20-yard drive and, as the home side chased the game, Fletcher caught them out with a sucker punch deep in injury time. “He is a great finisher,” Poyet said. “We just have to get the ball to him more often.”